By Marielle Winuk

Over the hills and through the fairways of the Beau Prey golf course, the Lumberjacks raced in their home opener cross country meet on Sept. 12. Fueled by pure adrenaline and grit to finish the race — both Humboldt teams placed first in a competitive lineup of Oregon Tech, Southwestern Oregon Community College and Willamette.

Humboldt had 12 of the top 20 finishers, one being Jacob Christopher.  It was Christopher’s second time racing at Beau Prey, and while he was looking to improve his time from last year, that was unfortunately not the case. 

“I did want to improve my time,” Christopher said. “Unfortunately, that was not the case today, but with the team — how big it is and how new it is — seeing where everyone’s placing right now is a lot more important than getting those times.”

This is Michael Schroer’s first year as the Head Cross Country Coach. To increase community engagement, Schroer added a men’s and women’s high school race before the 6k and 8k. In addition, amateurs and Humboldt alumni competed for the University of the North Coast team — also known as the ‘Unc squad’. Nick Brichta won the men’s 8k and was a part of the ‘Unc squad’.

“It’s just a group of very dedicated amateurs who love the sport and want to show that older folks are able to compete as well,” Brichta said. 

Brichta has won four out of the last five years they have had the Jim Hunt Invite. Brichta listed lots of positives to being a distance runner in Humboldt county.

“You got hills here which are different,” Brichta said. “It’s not 102 degrees all summer long which is really nice. You have endless trails. I’d say it’s the best place in the world to train for distance running.”

On the women’s side the top two Lumberjack finishers were freshmen, Amaya Uvalle and Sally Woodruff. Uvalle got first in the 6k with a time of 22 minutes and 45 seconds. 

Woodruff, despite feeling nervous for her first college race, came in third with a time of 23 minutes and 30 seconds. Woodruff immediately felt welcomed and created friendships within the team just from how much time they spent training together. 

“I like the fact that it’s kind of automatic friends when you first join, just because you spend a lot of time with the team running.” Woodruff said. “But I do like the culture here. They’re all so kind.”

The cross country team will compete at the Mike Johnson Classic in Monmouth, Oregon on Sept. 26.

Marielle is the managing and layout editor with an interest in sports and elections. Contact her at mmw146@humboldt.edu.